"We're in the building where they make us grow, and I'm frightened by the liquid engineers, like you."

For this episode, I look back at one of #GaryNuman's best-known and best-loved songs, 'Metal', from 1979's The Pleasure Principle.

The track was the first song on the album with lyrics, and was inspired by the writings of Philip K Dick, about a machine with a desire to be human.

The perfect synthpop track was never a single, but it became one of Gary Numan's most-performed songs, and was later covered and sampled by a number of artists, most notably by Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails.

The episode looks at:

What 'Metal' is all about
Its somewhat forgotten music video
Why it was never released as a single
The various live versions
When Gary performed it with Nine Inch Nails in 2009

Clips used:

Gary Numan - Metal
The Beach Boys - Do It Again
Gary Numan - Metal (live, 1979)
Gary Numan - Metal (live, 1986)
Gary Numan - Metal (live, 2018)
Gary Numan - Metal 98
Gary Numan - Moral
Gary Numan - Revolution (audiobook)
Tubeway Army - The Crazies
Tubeway Army - We Have a Technical
Nine Inch Nails - Metal
Nine Inch Nails - Metal (live, 2009)
Planet Funk - Who Said
Afrika Bambaataa - Metal
Nouvelle Vague - Metal
Poppy - Metal